Casing closure and latching means



Jan. 29, 1957 R. w. HEWES 2,779,588

CASING CLSURE AND LATCHING MEANS Filed Dec. 5, 195s FIGA. FIGB.

IN V EN TOR.

lRWHEWES HIS ATTORNEY United States Patent @hice 2,779,588 Patented Jan.29, 1957 CASING CLOSURE AND LATCHING MEANS Ralph W. Hewes, Rochester, N.Y., assignor to General Railway Signal Company, Rochester, N. Y.

Application June 5, 1953, Serial No. 359,830

Claims. (Cl. 268-72) This invention relates to casing closures and moreparticularly to a means for sealing shut and opening a mechanism casedoor which requires only one movement of a handle by only one hand toaccomplish the operation.

l'n mechanism cases ordinarily exposed to the weather and which are usedfor housing electrical apparatus and levers, such as for example, aswitch lock located in a railroad yard, it is essential that the doorclosure be water tight and firmly held closed even though it has to bereadily accessible for use by a maintainer or yardman, the yardman insome cases being a partially incapacitated man who has the use of onlyone hand.

In the present invention, there is provided such a casing closure meanswhich consists primarily of a sturdy handle which is pivotally mountedon the side of the casing and has a hollowed out portion which housesand carries latching and opening elements which cooperate with aprojecting element on a suitably gasketed hinged door. A single,downward movement of the handle unlatches and forces open the door whichmay be stuck shut. Also, with the door positioned in the nearly closedposition, a single upward movement of the handle pulls the door tightlyagainst its gasket seal and latches it in its closed position, whereinit is spring held.

Other objects, purposes and characteristic features of the inventionwill appear as the description progresses and reference should be madeto the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l shows the door end of a conventional mechanism casing with thehandle opening and closing means attached thereto;

Fig. 2 shows a side view of the same device;

Fig. 3 is a sectional View taken substantially on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2and shows the cover and casing seal as well as the latching and openingmeans located within the handle;

Fig. 4 is a side View partially in section and shows the latching meansin a closed position, handle upright;

Fig. 5 is another side view partially in section and shows the handle ina horizontal position wherein the l door is unlatched but still closed;

With more particular reference to Figs. l, 2, and 3, there has beenshown a boxlike casing 1 mounted on a pedestal or base 2. The open endof the casing 1 is covered by a door 3 which door is hinged to thecasing 1 by means of lugs 4 on the casing 1, lugs 5 on the door 3 andhinse pins 6 passing therethrough. One of the hinge pins 6 is threadedto receive a nut which is staked or pinned in place to prevent removalof the door. Inserted in a formed groove 7 in the door 3 is a gasket 8of wicking or'other suitable material, this gasket 8 bearing against thevedge of the open end of the casing 1 around its entire periphery withthe door 3 in a closed position.

Pivotally mounted on the side of the casing 1, by means of a shoulderedscrew 10, is a handle H. This handle H is mounted to turn freely asample clearance is provided when the screw 10 is inserted into a boredhole in the boss 11 of the handle H and is then threaded into the casing1 until the shoulder 12 on the screw 1t) bears against a boss on thecasing 1. After the handle H is securely mounted in place, the innerthreaded portion of the screw 10 is staked or peened over to preventturning and removal of the screw by unauthorized persons.

This handle H is formed to provide a grip portion 13 and a hollowed outhousing portion 14 in which is contained a latch spring 15 and a cammember 16 which is a cast-in part of the handle H (see Figs. 3 and 4).The latch spring 15 is pivotally mounted on the handle H by an anchorpin 17 and should be mounted so that it can swing freely due to its ownweight when lthe handle H is moved from one position to another, forreasons explained hereinafter.

This latch spring 15 is preformed in a general arch shape, one end 1Sbeing bent to form an eye to receive the anchor pin 17 while the otherend l? is formed into a hook shape, after which the complete latchspring 1S is spring tempered. The hook end 19 of this latch spring 15 isadapted to engage a preshaped lug 20 which is riveted or otherwisesuitably fastened to the door 3 and projects within the housing 14 ofthe handle H. This lug 2t) is formed from rectangular stock and the end26 which extends inside of the handle H to engage the latch spring 15and the cam 16 is forged or stamped out into an arcuate shape having acurved hump portion 27 at its lower edge as more clearly shown in theenlarged- View of Fig. 6. As viewed in the latched up position shown inFig. 4, this arrangement allows the hook end 19 of the latch spring 1Sto pivot on the lower hump portion 27 of the end 26 of the door lug Ztlwhile the upper portion of the lug end 26 arcs away from the latchspring 15 and its upper end provides a camming surface which cooperateswith the door opening cam member 16 (see Fig. 6). Also, the back face ofthis arcuate shaped lug end 26 forms a pocket which butts against thearcuate shaped face of the cam member 16 when the door 3 is being closedand thus prevents damage to the face of the cam member 16.

With more particular reference to Fig. 4, it should be noted at thispoint that with the handle H in its upright or latched position, thespring tempered latch spring 15 is elongated and has assumed its nearlyextended or latched position and thus holds both the door 3 and thehandle H in their closed and latched positions, wherein a flange portion23 on the handle H bears against a stop bracket 22 suitably fastened tothe side of the casing 1.

In this nearly extended over-center position of the latch spring 15, acenter line drawn between the pivot point of the hook 19 and the centerof the anchor pin 17 would lie below the .center of the handle pivotscrew 10. This arrangement creates in efect, a spring held toggle whichexerts a pull on the lug 2t) of the door 3 against the reaction offlange 23 bearing against the stop bracket 22. During the upward orlatching movement of the handle H, the latch spring 15 was in afullyextended or elongated position when the pivot point of the hook 19,the

center of the handle pivot screw 1i) and the center of the anchor pin 17were all three in line.

Referring now to the operation of the device, the normal closed positionof the casing door 3 has just been described and is as shown in Fig. 4.With reference to Fig. 5, the handle H has been shown as moved to ahorizontal position, which for illustrative purposes, is called anunlatcned position. During this movement of the handle H, the latchspring 15 was elongated or slightly Vaan-aises straightened out whilepassing through the over-center position of the latching rmovement and'thereafter Ithe tension was released so that further movement of thehandle H carried .the pivot end 17 ,of the latch spring l5 -to ,anupright position, wherein'the'hook end of the 4latch springl has becomedisengaged 'from the door lug Ztl and the latchtspring l5 hangs in avertical position by reason of its own weight and lies'between the doorlugand a boss 2l formed on the inside of the housing portion 14 of thehandle H. ln this horizontal position i of the handle H, the cam memberlo is about to engage the door lug 2t) and further downward movement ofthe handle will cause the cam member i6 to engage the door v'lug 20 andforce the door 3 outward (see Fig. 6), Vthereby H. Theboss 2li and theinner end 26 of the door lug 20 also serve to limit the-swingingmovement of, and form al guide-for, the latch spring i5, as mentionedhereinafter.

When it is desired to close up the casing again, which can only be donewhen the handlei'lis-in its '-lowerrnost position as shown in Fig. 7,the door must first be moved to its nearly closed position. ln so doing,the door lug 20 will strike the inner surface or" the handle housing 14-at the high point 2S near where the pivot pin i7 is anchored and thehandle H, which is now hanging by gravity on its pivot hearing lh, willbe swung slightly on its pivot so that the lug 2@ can clear and enterthe handle housing 1d and come to rest against the cam member i6. Thedoor 3 is now in position for the latching movement and the handle H isgripped and moved upward. The hook end l@ of the latch spring i5, whichas previously described, lies cradled in the housing .portion 14 of thehandle H, now is guided into position to come in contact with the doorlug 2t), as shown in Fig. 5. At this point of the handle movement, thecam member lo :has moved out of contact with the door lug 2h and furtherupward movement of the handle H causes the hook 19 to latch onto thedoor lug 2@ and pull the door 3 .toward the opening in casing l untilmaximum pulling force is applied as the latch spring l5 is elongated andpasses through the over-center position, after which the latch spring.l5 contracts slightly again and holds the door tightly closed ashereinbefore described and shown in yFig 4.

As previously mentioned, the stop bracket 22 located on the side of thecasing l cooperates with a ange portion 23 on the handle H when thehandle H is in its latched position. Aligned holes 1A are provided inboth the bracket 22 and the iiange 23 so that a padlock 2S may beinserted in the ho-les 24 to protect the device from unauthorized use.

From the foregoing description and with reference to the drawings, itwill be seen and understood that a casing closure and opening devicehasbeen provided which is positive in action and may be manipulatedby asingle motion in one direction or the other merely by one hand ifdesired. .it should also be understood that the disclosure shown anddescribed is merely for the purpose of illustra- .tion and various othermodifications and means of operation could be shown without departingfrom the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appending claims.

What i claim is:

l. A casing door fastening and opening means comprising, a gasketbetween the casing and the door to form an airtight moisture proof sealwhen said door is closed and latched,a handle and an associated latchspring and cam member, said handle being pivotally mounted on saidcasing in a piane at right angles to said door and adapted to be movedbetween latching and nonlatchingtpositions, said handle having arecessedfportionadjacent its pivotsection for housing said associatedlatch spring and cam member, said latch spring having one endpivotallyattached to said handle andthe other end forming a hook adaptedto engage a protruding door lug when said handle is moved from anonlatching to a latching position, said cam member being formed aroundsaid handle pivot section and adapted to push against said protrudingdoor lug to force said door open upon movement of said handle beyond itsnonlatching position wherein said latch spring was disengaged from saidprotruding doorlug; whereby, a single one handed motion of said handleto its extreme upward ,position latches ,said door and said handle intheir latched positions and a single one handed motion of said handle toits lower hanging position causes said door to be unlatched and forcedopen.

2. A casing doorfastening and opening means comprising, a gasket betweenthe casing and the door to form an airtight moisture proof seal whensaid door is closed and latched, a handle, an associated latch springand cam member, and `a protruding door lug, said handle being pivotallymounted on said casing in a plane at right angles to said door andadapted'to be moved1between latching and nonlatching positions, saidhandlev having a recessed portion adjacent its pivot section for housingsaid associated latch spring and earn member, said latch spring beingarch shaped and having one end pivotally attached to said handle and itsfree end hook shaped, said latch spring being so positioned within saidrecessed -portion of said handle thatwduringfthe movement lof saidhandle from its nonlatching to its latching position said hook end ofsaid ylatch spring isV guided into engagement with a pivot 'point onsaid protruding door lug, said latch spring thus arching over-saidhandle pivot to form a spring toggle connecting-means between said doorand said casing when said handle is in said latching position, a stop onsaid casing for arresting further movement of said handle and providinga reaction against the pulling force of said spring toggle after saidhandle has reached its latching position, said cam member being formedaround said handle pivot section and being so positioned that theinitial movement of said handle from its latching to its nonlatchingposition will only cause said hookend of said latch spring to disengagefrom said protruding door lug, whereas further nonlatching movement ofsaid handle will cause said cam member to engage fand push against saidprotruding door lug to force said door open.

3. A casing door fastening and opening means comprising, a handlepivoted on the casing and mounted on a plane at right angles to thedoor, said handle having a recessed portion in which is located alatchspring having one end fastened to said handle and the other endengaging a lug on said door when said door and said handle are in aclosed latched position, and a cam member formed around the pivotsectionof said handle to cause said door to be forced open as said cammember bears against vsaid door lug-.when said handle is moved toanopenunlatched position.

4. A casing door fastening and openingrmeans comprising, a gasketbetween the casing and theV door to form an airtight moisture proof sealwhen said door is closed Vand latched, a handle pivoted on the casingand mounted on a plane at right angles to the door, said handle having arecessed portion in .which is located a latch spring having one endfastened to said handle and the other end hook-shaped and adapted toengage aflug on said door, a cam member formed around the pivot sectionof said handle and Valso adapted to engage said lug on said door, saidhandle and. saiddoor having a closed latch position wherein said latchspring engages said door lug and said cammember disengages said doorlug, and said handle and said door-having an open unlatched positionwherein said latch spring disengages said door lug and said cam member.engages said door lug to break said gasket. seal and force'isaid dooropen.

5. A easing door fastening'and opening means comprising, a gasketbetween the casing and the door to form an airtight moisture proof sealwhen said door is closed and latched, a handle pivoted on the casing andmounted on a plane at right angles to the door, said handle having arecessed portion in which is located a latch spring having one endfastened to said handle and the other end hook-shaped and adapted toengage a lug on said door, a cam member formed around the pivot section0f said handle and also adapted to engage said lug on said door; wherebya single upward movement of said handle causes said latch spring toengage said protruding door lug to latch both said door and said handlein their latched positions, and a single downward move- References Citedin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,122,557 Versluis Dec.29, 1914 1,698,928 Wentorf Jan. 15, 1929 2,016,519 Schmidt Oct. 8, 19352,336,129 Sargisson et al Dec. 7, 1943

